O’Malley Blames Climate Change for Rise of Islamic State

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley blamed climate change in part for the rise of the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) terrorist organization Monday in an interview with Bloomberg's With All Due Respect.

"One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that nation, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms, or rather, the conditions of extreme poverty that has now led to the rise of ISIS and this extreme violence," he said.

O'Malley, so far behind in the polls as to be a practical non-factor in the Democratic race, may have thought that saying truly brazenly silly things to get attention is his only recourse at this point.